Factors Influencing Product Boycotts During Political Conflicts: Insights from Egypt

M.Zaki, Rana; I.Elseidi, Reham

doi:10.21608/msamsj.2025.389332.1106

Factors Influencing Product Boycotts During Political Conflicts: Insights from Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Rana M.Zaki ¹
Reham I.Elseidi ²

¹ Faculty of Commercial Studies and Business Administration, The Egyptian E-learning University

² Faculty of Business Ainshams University

10.21608/msamsj.2025.389332.1106

Abstract

This study investigates the psychological and sociocultural factors influencing Egyptian consumers’ intentions to boycott products perceived to support the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In response to the renewed violence in Gaza and rising geopolitical tensions, consumer boycotts have re-emerged across the Arab world as potent expressions of political and moral resistance. Despite their growing relevance, empirical research on boycott behavior in Arab contexts remains limited. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and moral psychology, this study develops a structural model incorporating ethical idealism, ethical relativism, religiosity, ethnocentrism, consumer animosity, self-enhancement, perceived efficacy, and perceived legitimacy. A total of 353 valid responses were collected via a structured questionnaire and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
The findings reveal that eleven of the twelve hypothesized relationships were supported. Consumer animosity, ethnocentrism, religiosity, perceived efficacy, legitimacy, and self-enhancement significantly influence both attitudes toward boycott and behavioral intention. Attitude toward boycott also had a direct and positive effect on intention. However, ethical idealism was inversely related to boycott attitudes, suggesting a perception that such acts may be ethically insufficient. Ethical relativism was found to be statistically insignificant. This study contributes a novel empirical model of boycott participation by integrating TPB with moral and identity-based constructs in a Middle Eastern context. It offers important implications for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners by revealing how moral conviction, social identity, and perceived impact drive political consumerism in conflict-affected societies.

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